Cara Stables Horse Boarding & Lessons

12/05/2024

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12/04/2024

Very interesting neuroscience about the horses brain

Comparative neurobiology of horse and human.

Horses and humans are both mammals.
Our brains may not be the same size, but they are almost identical in their structure and function.

Why can our brains look so similar but our behaviours and sensitivity to the world look so different?

The area in the picture highlighted is the prefrontal cortex or the (PFC). Its job in humans, horses, dogs, dolphins, elephants, cats, mice, rats, all mammals, and even birds is to carry out "higher executive functions" such as:

🧠 problem solving
🧠 decision making
🧠 reasoning
🧠 risk assessment
🧠 forward planning
🧠 impulse control
🧠 intention

Obviously, these executive functions are more advanced in humans than in other species of mammals, but this part of the brain plays a pivotal role in higher levels of learning beyond primal behaviours and learning survival skills.

So why aren't we seeing these higher executive functioning skills and behaviours in horses as much as what we see them in dogs, dolphins, elephants and even birds?

Ultimately it comes down to safety!

The latest neuroscience research suggests that when the brain feels unsafe it causes the body to produce stress response hormones and these stress response hormones cause the PFC to go "offline".
This means that subcortical regions of the brain (deeper parts of the brain) such as the primal brain (AKA limbic system, survival brain, flight/fight brain) completely take over to increase the chances of survival.

Feeling unsafe causes the feeling of fear and it is fear that gets this party started.

So behaviours come from two areas:

1. The PFC, carrying out problem solving skills, reasoning, impulse control, forward planning etc. that may be interpreted as "obedience" and "partnership".

2. The primal brain, carrying out reactive survival behaviours. This brain does NOT carry out impulse control, forward planning, problem solving, etc. It just reacts to the world. This brain heavily relies on patterns and consistency. This brain will cause freeze/flight/fight behaviours such as shutting down, bolting, biting, rearing, bucking, kicking, barging, etc.

Which brain is the domesticated horse spending most of it's time in?
It's primal brain!

This is why we don't get to see their full intellectual and cognitive potential because most of the time, domesticated horses are perceiving their world in a fearful way to some degree.

We can help our horses with this!

Feeling fearful is the OPPOSITE to feeling calm.
If we want to help our horses access their PFC then we MUST do whatever it takes to help them feel calm.

☝️ ONLY when a brain feels calm can it slow down enough to develop TRUE confidence. Only when the brain feels confident will it access TRUE cognition (PFC).

☝️ We first need to understand that when we get "bad behaviour" from our horses, it's not intentional or naughty or rude. What you are seeing is either a horse that is just reacting to the fear they feel or they are carrying out their "coping mechanism" in response to their anticipation of feeling fear.

☝️ Try to remove expectations that your horse should "know better".
"Knowing better" implies that all behaviours are coming from the PFC and there should be some impulse control and reasoning. Unless your horse feels calm, they can't access the PFC to "know better".

THIS STARTS WITH YOU!!!

You need to be consciously aware if YOU feel calm first. If you feel calm, your horse will have a better chance at feeling calm. Expecting them to feel calm when you don't is unfair.

The best way to create calmness is to intentionally be SLOW!!!
SLOW EVERYTHING you do down.
SLOW your movement down.
SLOW your talking down.
SLOW your walking down.
SLOW your breathing down.
SLOW your horse down.
If you feel too slow, then you're going slow enough.

Calmness is slow, not fast.

This will help you and your horse to connect and feel safe together.
When the brain feels stressed, the stress response hormones cause the body to speed up.

Stress = speed

We can reverse engineer this process and create a calm mind through slow intentional movement and a relaxed posture.

The by-product of a calm brain is confidence and cognition (PFC access).

Happy brain training 🧠
Charlotte 😊

Photo: Credit: Adult horse (equine) brain, sagittal section. Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

11/26/2024

11/05/2024

Movement is everything !!

How a horse is put together is called Conformation. This term comes from the word "conform". Many people confuse this word with "confirmation", but we are not looking to confirm anything here. We want a horse to conform to an ideal body type for the kind of horse we want for what the horse will do.

The left image is my idea of an ideal polo horse. The red line across the top of the back might be considered short for a jumper or saddle seat horse, but for polo a short back translates to increased agility for polo.

The purple line at the shoulder shows the slope of the shoulder, which in this horse is nicely sloped. This indicates greater ability to reach with the forehand and that means more speed. A steep slope of the shoulder like this might not be desirable for a draft horse that does not need speed, but rather needs more power to the ground with their forehand in order to pull a heavy load.

The two yellow lines indicate the length of the leg and when compared to the lower red line, the proportion of legs compared with the length of the barrel might be a little long for some people. But for polo this would be good because longer legs mean a longer stride and more speed.

The horse's conformation on the right is not ideal for polo. The shorter legs in relation to the longer back are not ideal for speed and agility. I would consider this horse's conformation ideal for an all-arounder horse with substantial versatility. Compared to the more specialized conformation of the polo horse, this black horse can potentially be good at many different equestrian pursuits.

This horse with versatile conformation at liberty in a pasture allows for its light movement. We see ample hind reach and forehand extension. The result is a nicely centered balance indicated by the yellow line. This whole picture of movement in this horse shows "self carriage", meaning the horse is carrying itself in centered balance, not heavy on the forehand or off balance in any way.

No matter what type of horse you are seeking for whatever purpose, I think a horse must have conformation that allows the horse to achieve this kind of light self carriage. There are horses with disproportionate ratios of the elements of conformation discussed here. These horses' legs might be too short, the back too long, the shoulders too straight and more so as to prevent or impede self carriage. This cannot be fixed, so these kinds of conformation flaws are to be avoided, which is why we study conformation.

How a horse is put together matters. The color of the coat, for example, does not matter in terms of movement and balance, yet for some riders, color is their most important criteria for selecting a horse. This makes no sense to me. Learning the variations of equine body form is the study of ratios and proportions and it is called conformation. learn it.

10/08/2024

Ever wondered how our anatomy compares to a horse’s? 🧐 Check out this colorful schematic of a human foot and a horse’s hind limb! Did you know that our heel is actually the equivalent of the point of the hock in a horse? 🦶➡️🐴

09/02/2024

08/20/2024

❤️❤️

07/16/2024

too cute ❤️

Great photography ❤️